Timeline update and selecting paint colors

I am obviously pretty far behind on the weekly chronolog of activities and pictures. I've been quite busy, despite not having a client (aka income) since mid-January (thank God I haven't had a client since mid-January!). Anyway, I thought I'd write a "here is where we're at today" post.

The current week of March 3rd is Week 9 of the 14 active weeks of the remodel. (Week 15 is final cleaning.)

Things continue to progress, sometimes several steps forward and a half-step or two backwards. The weather hasn't been exactly cooperative these days - can't lay tile and grout in freezing/near-freezing temperatures in an unconditioned house in the rain, for example.

That said, we have drywall; we have wood and tile floors, with grout applied in several locations even; we have a bathtub and a shower base and much of the tub and shower surround tile has been set; we have interior doors; and we have floor and door trim. It looks like a real house again!

Painting is scheduled to commence next week. We have been struggling with selecting paint colors for the past 2+ weeks. We were held up when my favorite paint lady (the only one who knows how to mix samples at Home Depot on this side of town, apparently) went on vacation for 10 days or so.

While she was out, I tried 3 different Home Depots in an effort to find anyone else who can mix samples properly!! The guy at the store down on Hillcroft at the Beltway actually had colorant running down the sides of the sample jar -- and expected me to want them. (I spoke with a supervisor and explained the myriad problems with the 4 paint samples I had just had made, and no, I didn't buy any of them. At that point, I was pretty livid, explained why they were wholly inadequate as color samples, and left.)

The good news is, we have managed to get colors selected for most of the rooms in the house, though we did go through numerous candidates to get there. I have gone through a number of "touch-up" kits, which are perfect for applying paint to foam-core boards from Hobby Lobby, which is how we evaluate colors. Here is a glimpse into the past several weeks' purchased paint color candidates, though there may have been additional colors that were so awful as to have been tossed almost immediately into the trash. Of course, the picture doesn't include the half-dozen plus recently purchased candidates.

The rooms we struggled with the longest were:

1. the front bedroom, which has a 6x6 foot south-facing window through which you see the parterre garden, and which I want to be a shade of green
2. the study, which faces the neighbor's house to the west and now opens east to the kitchen, and which Roy wants to be a shade of mauve
3. the laundry room, which I want to have some fun with - Roy describes my desire to have it "be something that makes me smile" as "whimsical" (he's one to speak, what with trying to find a color he likes for the study!) - ooh! I just had an idea...we'll see what Roy thinks of it (he agreed to it! you'll just have to wait to see what we decided to do in there)

Plus, heaven help us, we actually managed to select a trim color that will coordinates with, ahem, all 10 wall colors! I bought 3 potential trim colors and we went with the one we initially had chosen from the color cards (that is Polar Bear). Yay!

So that's where we are at - about two-thirds of the way through the remodel and finishing up our time in color selection purgatory.

 
The big news of the week is that someone literally bought every slab (all 10 of them) of our chosen granite for the kitchen less than 24 hours before we were to go out and choose a mere 2 slabs. That created a multi-day panic that isn't over quite yet. I have spent the better part of the past 2 days in the granite yard haunting the aisles looking for solutions.

The good news is, we have a potential work-around that may cost us more, but should still get us the desired countertops, as we cannibalize pre-fabricated countertops and island tops that are broken and/or stained to get the linear feet that we need. At least for the main kitchen countertops. The island might have to come out of a different piece (color) of granite, so I spent today ferreting out candidates for an island top.

We'll be back at the granite yard in the morning for more perusing and weighing of options. Then I'll meet the fabricator at the yard next week to look over what we've been able to cobble together and see if he thinks it will work.

Week 4 - more MEP, more ice!

Week 4 continued "MEP" on the schedule, plus a bit of continued framing. Plus another day off for icy roads, for good measure (who ever would have thought Houston would have 2 bad weather stay-off-the-road kind of days within 5 days?!?).

We spent that entire Sunday (1/26)  installing low voltage "boxes" throughout the house and running coaxial and cat6 cabling between our structured media panel in the hall closet and each drop: 8 drops for a total of 15 lines run. The contractor offered to do it, but any hard bends in the wire could ruin the cat6, so we chose to do it ourselves (after we removed the cat5e that we had run back in a very hot July 2001). That was a long day and I'm thankful that Roy was willing to walk around an attic with only joists for support, to staple up the wires. We still need to run new wires to the back of the house, but with the big pile of dirt in the master bedroom closet (from excavating the bathroom drain area), we decided to wait. But it turns out it was a good thing we got most of the lines run on Sunday, as they installed HVAC ductwork on Monday, which leads us to....

We did our standard mini walk-through that Monday night. There were still some electrical things out of place, but they had corrected some others. Our walk revealed that they had finally moved our whole house air cleaner, a Trion Air Bear that we had had for almost a decade - a single 5-inch pleated filter that serviced all of the return air ducts instead of having individual thin filters at each grille, and only had to be changed once a year. So we looked over to where it should be installed, between the heater and the return air ducts, and nope, it wasn't there. They had installed a return air plenum and sealed that up.

Well, that didn't bode very well, so we went outside to the dumpster, climbed up on the outside of it, and dug around the inside until we found what we knew we would find - our Trion Air Bear bent up and discarded like so much trash!!

Needless to say, that generated an e-mail to LCI. It was actually the 3rd email before 7am on Tuesday morning. The 1st concerned securing the new, full water pipes against damaging freezes, and the 2nd was yet more arguments about the electrical system and what they (electrical sub) think they get to bill us for as additional work. About the only thing I like about our architect is that his standard project specification includes clauses like, and I quote: "Verify the capacity of the existing electrical service to the house. Additional panel space is available but adequate capacity should be determined prior to submitting a bid." So for them (electrical sub) to decide now, 4 weeks into the project that we need a new panel is a "fine, but we're not paying for it" talk (yet to be held). It is, amusingly, the exact same amount that he wanted to charge us to rewire the entire house and we hadn't agreed when they were full steam ahead ripping everything out, so that became their cost to bear, not ours. (The resolution on this did wind up us paying for a sub-panel. Yes, the contract really does cover us, and yes, they really didn't bid accurately. But, sometimes you just give a little bit for goodwill. Current NEC is ridiculous in many areas.)

But the fact that they discarded the Air Bear was simply insane. Dan had addressed some of the other pieces of email (plumbing and electrical), but when he got to the HVAC, I can imagine that he used words, under his breath if nothing else, that they are not allowed to use. Here's his response to us: "WOW- I am almost speechless here.  I have no idea why it would have been tossed as we discussed placement of it yesterday.  I certainly assure you it will be replaced.  Let me investigate." It was replaced and they did have to rework the plenum, too.

We wonder how much more profit could be made by the subs and/or the contractor if they weren't constantly doing work that had to be ripped out and done again, correctly!

Week 3 - Taking Shape

Week 3 was "MEP" on the schedule, plus continued framing. What's MEP? Turns out it is Mechanical (HVAC), Electrical, and Plumbing.

Most of W3's accomplishments involved the infrastructure of the house - for plumbing, that meant running all new water lines in the attic and walls, new water supply line between the meter and the house, new plumbing ventilation stacks, new drains and P-traps where required by our building plan or current building code.

We are utilizing a PEX manifold only for the cold water distribution in the house, because we wanted to have a more sensible hot water solution than running water down the drain waiting for it to get hot. For the hot water distribution, we specified what is called "structured plumbing system", wherein a hot water line runs in a loop through the attic, and smaller lines drop down from the loop to supply each fixture. An "on-demand water circulation pump" is installed near the water heater to circulate water through the loop, and it is activated by a simple doorbell-wired button installed at each hot water location.

The pump we chose, after much research, was the Chilipepper CP2011. We are very excited about the potential savings not only in water down the drain, but of time spent waiting for the water to get hot in the master shower, which is as far away in the house as you can get from the water heater! (This water pump was originally designed as a minimally-invasive water conservation solution for older homes. Read up on it if you are interested.)

We did pretty well in our plumbing design, requiring only the master shower drain to be relocated, which did require busting through the foundation. The master toilet, although not moving, had an issue with drain route (or something), which required them to bust through the perimeter of the foundation (another thing altogether, and they figured out how to minimize that impact--if you have to cut through the rebar reinforcing the concrete foundation perimeter, that is apparently a Bad Thing, and they were able to narrowly avoid having to do so). All other plumbing rearrangements were able to utilize existing drain lines (and therefore, roof penetrations,)!

Because we are installing real hardwood floors, the floor "height" will increase by 1.5 inches. What does that mean? Every doorway in the house must be raised 1.5 inches, even those doors whose position/type did not change. For all of the new doors/doorways, they simply framed the opening 1.5 inches higher. For the rest of the doors, they have to raise the existing door framing. This includes all of the exterior doors, so although we saw the new doors in the laundry room and front entry briefly last week, those came down so the openings could be reframed. Since we reversed the hinge side of the entry door, they have to use the new door, but it is now securely encased in sheathing to protect it from damage til it needs to be painted. The laundry room door is back to being the old steel door.

The one nod to the "current style" common in the remodeled houses in our area is the arched doorway. We changed the square opening between the front entry and the living room to be a cased arched opening. We think it looks nice already and defines the space with more panache.

Also notable in the living room is the specialty electrical box we purchased for the TV wall. It handles electrical and cabling (coaxial, cat6, and whatever audio wire you want) in a recess, which allows a flat panel TV to be installed flat against the wall. Although we don't own a TV, we figure there's a pretty good chance the next owners will. :)We also decided to install a similar box, but without the space for audio cables, in the master bedroom.

OH construction well underway (Weeks 1 & 2)

We are nearing the end of Week 3 of the remodel of the old house and it has been going along pretty well. We tour the day's work each night with our headlamps (one of the best purchases ever!) and sometimes marvel at the changes and other times, panic, though at this point, we have moved beyond panicking now that we have had reassurances from the contractor that all will be okay, that his word is good, and anything we might find done in conflict with our understanding will be fixed and not at our expense. They have been a great contractor to work with so far.

Weeks 1 & 2 were demolition of various kinds - what few fixtures we had left, kitchen cabinetry, master bathroom cabinetry, flooring, sheetrock, insulation, HVAC ducting, etc. A few things disappeared that we didn't expect - the hallway return air chase (because it was made out of sheetrock) plus the linen cabinet above it, and also the oak and birch wood linen cabinet in the hall bathroom (because we hadn't explicitly labeled it "not trash/keep", we guess).

This is the remains of our master bedroom, bathroom, and closet by Day 4. They waited until all of the walls were out to pull down the ceilings and the nasty 57 year old insulation and various droppings (we'll just leave that description at "disgusting"). 

But here is one surprise we saw in the walls, near the back patio light switches (yeah, it's probably what you think it is):

 We figure it was some kind of rodent. Perfectly preserved skeleton. Gross and cool at the same time.

We have no idea how many dumpsters-full they have hauled away. Several, we're pretty sure (we know of two for certain). This was at the end of Week 1.

At the end of Week 2, we had our second and third blips on the radar on the same day, this time when we walked through the house on Friday morning and discovered them ripping the electrical out without our go-ahead (we were discussing it with them in e-mail and had not approved as we thought that there were some perfectly fine new circuits installed in 2000 for dedicated purposes that shouldn't be touched), then we walked again Friday night and discovered re-wiring had commenced, and not to either the as-built electrical plan nor the new electrical plan! They had also cut the installed-in-2000, dedicated wiring to our porch downlights and Christmas light timers, which we had explicitly and repeatedly said "no, do not touch that".

They also ripped apart the HVAC system that day, and relocated the return air without asking and installed HVAC registers in the wrong places, basically completely freaking us out. We had already set up a meeting with Dan to go over the electrical and HVAC in the entire house on Monday, so we were confused. And really worried, as they work on the house 6 days a week (Mon-Sat) and we could only imagine how many more things would be wrong by the time Monday morning rolled around!

Dan actually checked his e-mail late that night and e-mailed us reassurances that we were still planning to have the walk-through on Monday morning and that things would be as we wanted and expected them. He canceled their work on Saturday, which was very reassuring.

I had the walk-through Monday with Dan and James from LCI, as well as our architect and his sidekick. Dan again reiterated that his word goes, that the electricians jumped the gun and what they did was on them, not on us and not on LCI. We then proceeded to walk every outlet, every switch, and every HVAC in the entire house. Roy & I had walked the same things Sunday night, so I had annotated plans (would you really have expected anything less?), so the walk-through on Monday went off pretty well, though it did take 3-1/2 hours by the time I was finished answering questions from all of the trades and Dan.

The former hallway HVAC return air chase will be converted into a full height linen cabinet in the hallway (instead of the half-height it was) and they will build  a small built-in dresser unit in the middle bedroom (by borrowing an odd section of closet from that walk-in closet to both square off the closet and enable us to install Elfa shelving on that side plus it will create a usable space in the bedroom when combined with the former air chase space).

Next post (no promises when, but maybe in the next day or so when the weather is so horrid here in Houston) will cover the new stuff going on in Week 3. It's pretty exciting to see the house take on its new interior scape with the new walls and doorway placements, etc. They installed the new laundry room door (with operable window!) and new front entry door in the past couple of days. We like them.

D-day is set for January 6

We have retained a family-owned construction firm based in the Heights for the remodel of the Old House. We first met with the owner back in September, but their schedule wasn't going to be open until November at the earliest, so we waited. (And waited.) We accepted their bid mid-October, with an uncertain start date (holidays, current project delays, etc.). Our interior demolition (to the stud walls, throughout the house) is now set for January 6.

Last Friday, Dec 13, the owner, Billy, his two construction supervisors- Stephen (a brother) and James, his "money man"- Danny (another brother), and the reps from his sub-contractors (Edgar-electrical, Arturo-plumbing, and neither one of us remembers the HVAC guy's name) all met at the house for a "get familiar with the project" walk-through.

After the initial walk-through, we looked over some of the plan pages, then their questions began. They were all good questions about either things on the drawings, things in the project specification, things they had thought of, etc. Lots of zinging around among topics. Fortunately, I think we had immediate answers for all of their questions so far and we'll handle any other questions as they arise.

When it gets time for the electrical, we will do a separate walk-through since the architect's drawings are somewhat confusing (which we understood when presented from the electrician's point of view). But since I know the existing electrical pretty well (we mapped the electrical panel, after all, and designed the big panel expansion project in 2000), it shouldn't be a problem. We don't want them removing our porch and patio's down lights in the soffits, for example, thinking that is what they are supposed to do (courtesy of the confusing drawings).

They all seem like people who know their stuff - and aren't afraid of homeowners who know theirs! They had some nice comments about how prepared we are (almost 100% of the product specifications have been ready since September and have been given to the contractor in spreadsheet form - there are only a handful of things that we have yet to pick for which they are responsible for procuring).

Saturday, we met with a couple from Baytown who looked at our former dining room table and chairs. They were originally primarily interested in the chairs (but would take the table off our hands, too) as he had recently purchased wood to make a dining room table. But they decided they liked the table pretty well, too. I sold her on why we had purchased it all those years ago, all reasons why it will make their family a great table for years to come. (Here is its very sturdy double-pedestal base, sans top.)

Sunday afternoon, the man brought his three sons, two trucks and a long trailer to load everything up. It was bittersweet to see it all go, but it doesn't fit in the new house and we needed to sell it. With their growing family (one son is already married), the matriarch was happy to have a table to seat all of the current family members with room to grow. With this change of ownership, the table has moved on to its next life stage.

We have the Elfa shelving pieces to finish packing up and moving out of the old house along with miscellaneous other small stuff. We should be able to get that done between now and Jan 6, even with our trip to the Liberty Bowl to watch Rice play (haven't missed a bowl in our lifetimes and don't plan to start now!).

The Old House remodel is scheduled to take approximately 16 weeks from commencement.

The last viewing of the old house as originally built

We are finally, at long, long last, looking forward to getting the first remodel (at the old house) underway!

If any of you want to just walk through the house to see what it's like before the remodel, we are going to have it open this Sunday, 10/20, from 4-5 pm. Send us a message if you need the address.

We'll have the new floor plans and tile selections on hand.

Of course, we'll have a bigger (and real, with food!) open house after  the remodel is done and we have (temporarily) moved back in there. This "open house" is for the folks who haven't seen how it is currently laid out inside and want to have the "before" visual.

House Specific Updates

Old house: We are set to go with a builder that has worked primarily in the Houston Heights for the past 20 years. The references have been great and we have appreciated the interactions we've had with one of the principals. It is a family outfit of 3 brothers and approximately 35 full-time employees (trades are subbed out to their regular subs). We anticipate a great result based on everything we have heard.  (We discovered them on Angie's List.)

New house: The design competition on Arcbazar continues to attract more interest. We are now up to 22 designers from around the world. We have had just a few questions from a designer so far, but we put up a very detailed spec. Some designers may feel they have everything they need to know to create a design for us. Also, there are still 4.5 weeks left in the competition, and many will likely be working on the project more as the deadline approaches and questions may fly then.

We continue to be impressed at the submitted designs for other competitions, and we often have a "wow! that design is so perfect!" reaction to the winning design (just like the client). We wish we had known about Arcbazar for the old house simply because we are curious what they'd have dreamt up as solutions. As it is, we are pretty happy with the design we created, and we're anxious to see it built out.

Finally, forward motion is on the horizon!

A whole new way of looking at design

Site: New House

After our horrid experiences with first a Design-Build firm in 2010 and now an Architect in 2013, we had no idea where to go for the design of the expansion (master suite and Endless Pool) at our new house. Expending effort only to find a new architect who would also back-burner our non-million-dollar project at every opportunity was a non-starter. We had to get moving forward. But how?

I decided to log in to Angie's List and poke around for architect-types. Hmm. There's a highly rated firm with a ton of reviews and it's in downtown Houston? Really? Where?

Reading the review, I realize they are not in downtown Houston, but offer design services over the web. Hmm. I read the reviews.

Some people are unhappy with the business model, which is crowd-sourced architecture/design set up as a competition. You, the client, put up a monetary reward with your design requirements and you set a due date. At that due date, you judge (rank) the designs you receive based on how well they meet your requirements and how well you like them. 1st place is awarded 60% of the award money, 2nd gets 30%, and 3rd gets 10%. Then the results become public on the member's side of the website and everyone can see them. It's like hiring multiple designers to offer you solutions to the same issue because that is exactly what you are doing.

The satisfied customers give absolutely glowing reviews and explain that it requires substantial effort on your part, but you get out of it what you put into it. These designers are from across the globe and rely on you to answer questions about site measurements, things you might like, etc. We have no problem with that.

I visit ArcBazar's website. There are some very interesting projects on there, with some very creative design solutions. I'm intrigued. I start visiting ArcBazar periodically, really going through some of the projects to read over the design req from the client, read the exchanges between the client and the designers, and review the winning designs (as well as those that didn't rank).

We watch for a couple of months and decide that this is how we want to design the work to be done on our new house. Time to write up our requirements. Hoo-boy. I spent several weeks working on this in my spare time and then, last weekend, that is all either of us worked on.
We posted our competition Monday night, with a deadline of 8 weeks (we thought our project was too complicated to expect something sooner). As of Friday morning, we have 10 designers signed up from 4 continents. The site says that many designers won't sign up until near the very end of the project, when they know they will have something to submit (as they now get penalized in the points systems for signing up for a competition but not submitting a design). Our first entrant was from Albania. We now have 2 from Albania, 2 from US, and 1 each from Serbia & Herzegovenia, France, Mexico, Georgia (Republic of), Morocco and Nigeria. The general consensus is that 25-50% of the designers will actually submit plans.

Yeah, we're pretty excited about handling our design this way. The average number of designs you'll get is 9, though I've seen a few competitions lately with upwards of 2 dozen designers.

Our competition posting is available only to ArcBazar members, but signup to the site is free. If you are interested, you can create an account and see what we have requested. (If you do, let us know if you see anything that we missed!) It's a neat place to browse around, too.